No matter what percentages one tries to throw into the equation, many people just don’t like it that gay unions have been equated to marriage and even fewer want gay couples to adopt children. This is neither homophobia nor an infringement of anybody’s right to choose the kind of lifestyle they want to live. It is an infringement of society’s right to a decent government implementing decent policies and not pandering to a minority, which behaves like it has just come out of the closet.

It was an in-your-face party that took place outside Parliament last week after same-sex marriage was approved by Labour’s comfortable majority. Those gays celebrating in St George’s Square mocked marriage and mocked the society they apparently want to be accepted by. Equating gay marriage to real marriage between a man and a woman by means of a law does not make it right, or true, it just turns it into an institutionalised perversity of what we once knew as marriage. After all, it was that same Prime Minister that gays so happily applauded who said it is not law that makes a marriage but love. Well, I love my cat, Mr Prime Minister, but I’m not marrying him.

Anyone who chooses to identify himself through his sexual orientation has a problem, and that makes it everyone’s problem. We have not heard the end of gay rights and their ostensible right to be treated like anyone else. This is just the beginning, especially with the unnecessary constitutional amendment everyone seems to ignore.

There is no such thing as gay rights as gays are already treated like everyone else because human rights belong to all. But gay is set to become the new black. As for the real blacks, since they can’t vote, they may collect our garbage or we just deport them. How’s that for true liberalism?

The Nationalist Party should be proud that its MPs were booed as they emerged from Parliament after refusing to participate in a charade concocted by a Prime Minister who never wanted to reach consensus

The Nationalist Party should be proud that its MPs were booed as they emerged from Parliament after refusing to participate in a charade concocted by a Prime Minister who never wanted to reach consensus, just so he can brand the Nationalists as being ‘on the wrong side of history’.

His obsession with history is becoming pathetic. He is way out of his depth and clearly not up to the job. His so-called liberal agenda is shallow and Malta has started to pay the price. There are, however, many gullible people willing to swallow his bait, enough at least to partially fill a square.

The Malta Independent was on to something last week when they asked who footed the bill for the estimated €40,000 party in Valletta. Malta Gay Rights Movement coordinator Gabi Calleja called the event a “joint effort” between the government and the gay community. But when asked what the gay community had actually contributed, she mentioned “the [wedding] cake”. That leaves quite a big hole in the budget, but the newspaper barked up the wrong tree when it asked Helena Dalli’s gay-friendly ministry if it had paid for it. They should have asked the Labour Party.

Now that the damage to our families has been done, our Prime Minister, clearly riding on a high which is out of sync with the rest of the country, has brought up the next item on his liberal agenda: drugs.

To start with, going easy on first-time offenders is not a liberal policy but a logical, sensitive policy. We all do stupid things in our youth, my list is endless, and one mistake shouldn’t serve to ruin the rest of a kid’s life. But packaging it in a liberal agenda raises alarm bells.

The Prime Minister spoke of the decriminalisation of minor drug-related offences. Imprisoning youths found in possession of drugs for personal use “was failing our youths”. But what is personal use?

Local media has recalled how the issue of drugs for personal use was raised in a court judgment that confirmed a 10-year prison sentence to Welshman Daniel Holmes, found guilty of growing cannabis in Gozo. In rejecting his appeal, the court said over one kilo of marijuana was found in his apartment, enough to make 5,300 joints. So the question arises, what does the Prime Minister mean by personal use?

We’ve been down this road before. The Prime Minister once spoke of gay unions, to which the PN agreed, and then moved on to instead legislate gay marriage with adoption, to which the PN could not agree. He may be playing the same game all over again. The proposal on decriminalising minor drug-related offences comes on the eve of the crucial EP elections.

There is no way the Prime Minister is planning a consensus on this with the Opposition. His plan is to put them ‘on the wrong side of history’, again, this time by accusing them of wanting to send kids to jail on minor drug offences and hence ruining their lives.

To do that, he shall need to go a step further than the PN would be prepared to go: and that is the de facto legalisation of drugs. If he does that, this country is truly in danger because that would be irresponsibility of the highest degree, for purely partisan ends. Muscat’s insistence on branding this a liberal policy points in that direction.

One of his predecessors too had once suggested the legalisation of drugs. Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, when Opposition leader, had proposed selling drugs marked as poison off shop shelves, or something silly of this sort. No one took him seriously, but Joseph Muscat should be.

Having opened the door ajar, Alternattiva Demokratika is already calling for relapsing to be decriminalised as well, if the drug is for personal use.

The assumption many make is that Muscat’s so-called liberal battle cries are sweeping the carpet from under the PN. This is a very superficial way of looking at things. Firstly, the so-called switchers are not necessarily liberals or freethinkers but more often than not simple opportunists. Muscat is pandering to them above all others, thinking like that he will keep the PN in a permanent minority.

The most recent survey by Malta Today points in the opposite direction. The PN is consolidating, Labour is faltering, though the latter is still several points ahead.

The trend is already there, the two parties are edging closer to each other. There may be several reasons for that, the most probable one being disgruntled Labourites who were promised heaven on earth and finding Labour not delivering to their individual needs, which means political favours. That does not translate into votes for the PN.

Traditional Labour supporters are alienated by this Prime Minister who has swung from the protectionist, isolationist, conservatism of old Labour to pseudo-liberalism they do not associate with.

Muscat’s hardcore underbelly is exposed and that is where the PN should take the fight. It needs new candidates, however, like village doctors and people who speak in the language of the southern electoral districts, and move into Labour’s home turf. There will be voters who are ripe for the taking. Being perceived as conservative and booed by gays is an asset among Labour’s hardcore.

Muscat’s pandering to minorities masquerading as liberals is coming at a price and is clearly a risky game. He is hoping that through government benevolence he can keep his hardcore support loyal and the PN in permanent opposition. He may succeed, given his numerical advantage, or he may be deluding himself with his obsession with his place in history.

As he waved at the gay Labour crowd outside Parliament, one poet came to mind, Stevie Smith:

“I was much too far out all my lifeAnd not waving but drowning.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.